A Syrian man reacts after seeing the body of his relative buried in rubble after an air strike destroyed at least 10 houses in the town of Azaz on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria. Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP

5.13pm BST

Summary of the latest developments

SYRIA

•Syrian government forces have been fighting rebels near the airport in Aleppo, AP reports, citing state media. AP says it is "the first official acknowledgment that fighting has reached the doorstep of the strategic site in the country's largest city".

•Seventy-six people have been killed in Syria so far today, including 20 in Deraa, 18 in Homs, 14 in Damascus and its suburbs and 14 in Aleppo, according to the Local Coordination Committees.

•Former Syrian prime minister Riyad Hijab, who defected earlier this month, is in Qatar for talks, his spokesman said. Meanwhile, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, has predicted new "spectacular defections" from the Syrian regime soon.

•The Free Syrian Army has acquired a shipment of 14 Stinger missiles, according to al-Arabiya. The missiles are believed to have been delivered through the İskenderun area on the border with Turkey.

•UN monitors in Damascus have started to pack up following the security council's decision to end their mission at midnight on Sunday.

BAHRAIN

•The US State Department has expressed "deep concern"over the jailing of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab in Bahrain.

4.58pm BST

US complains to Bahrain

The US State Department has expressed "deep concern"over the jailing of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab in Bahrain.

Although the language of the statement is couched in diplomatic terms, it is probably the strongest official complaint to date from the US over Bahrain's human rights record:

The Government of Bahrain has committed to respect freedom of expression and assembly and we look to it to fulfil these commitments. We are deeply concerned that a Bahraini court sentenced Nabeel Rajab to three years in prison on charges of leading “illegal gatherings.”

We expect that the verdict and sentence will be reconsidered in the appeals process without delay. We urge the government of Bahrain to consider all available options to resolve this case. We believe that all people have a fundamental right to participate in peaceful acts of protest.

We have repeatedly urged the government of Bahrain to take steps to build confidence across Bahraini society, and to begin a meaningful dialogue with the political opposition and civil society. Excessive punishment for peaceful expression – in this case and others – will not contribute to those efforts and only serves to divide Bahraini society further.

4.54pm BST

Struggling for food in al-Tel

Our colleague Mona Mahmood has been speaking on Skype with a resident of al-Tel, 15km north of Damascus, who gave his name as Osama al-Teli. This is what he said:

The FSA pulled out of al-Tel district at 2am today and headed to the mountain. The decision was taken in order to protect civilians and stop the shelling.

There are more than 3,500 families who have fled to al-Tel from different parts in Damascus. A few days ago, FSA men were able to liberate the headquarters for the political security in the district. They caught Muhammed Juma'a, the officer who was in charge, there and ordered him to leave the district at once.

Since that day, the district has not seen any rest. The shooting was by helicopter, tanks and mortars and did not stop at all. We had about 200-300 FSA men here.

A few hours after the FSA pullout, which was confirmed by the military council, families who had left the district recently started to come back but the Syrian army blocked the way in front of them. The whole district is divided by so many checkpoints it is almost impossible to move anywhere.

The Syrian army started to burn the houses near al-Hassan hospital today. Many buses full of shabiha are in the down town district.

For eight days so far, the district has been deprived of all the basic requirements for daily life. Some of the houses down town were taken by the Syrian army as bases.

We have been relying on frozen food to survive. We started to contact each other asking if anyone can lend some bread. Sometimes we have been contacting the people who left, to ask if we can break into their houses to look or food in their freezers.

The food people have in freezers last for three days but after that with the lack of power it starts to get rotten. I can assure you that some families are eating only fruits from their gardens.

No one has been able to go out of the district to get food. The only route is to go through the mountains and it is not safe at all. More than 40 people have took this route the day before yesterday but till now we have not heard from of any of them, we do not know if they are still alive or not.

Updated at 5.02pm BST

4.01pm BST

Deaths in Aleppo

Activists claim several people have been killed in the al-Sha'ar neighbourhood of Aleppo.

A video (WARNING: graphic) purports to show the search for eight bodies under rubble in Maaruba, Deraa. A girl is pulled out at one stage but attempts to resuscitate her are futile

3.31pm BST

Humanitarian workers under fire

Humanitarian workers have come under fire while providing life-saving care in Syria, says the British Red Cross. Working in extremely dangerous conditions, five Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) staff and volunteers have been killed since the start of the uprising (the International Committee of the Red Cross works with the SARC in Syria) . Katy Attfield, head of disaster management for the British Red Cross highlighted the obstacles that humanitarian workers face:

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent and ICRC are among the only agencies able to work across frontlines in Syria. These staff and volunteers are risking their lives daily to bring aid into areas where people often lack even the most basic essentials – water, food, and medical help. When aid workers are targeted, it becomes impossible for the ICRC and Red Crescent to continue these activities, leaving large numbers of sick and wounded without treatment.

On World Humanitarian Day we recognise the sacrifices that humanitarian workers make and remind people not only of this vital work, but why it is necessary. The reports from Syria are increasingly focused on conflict and politics – meanwhile the humanitarian situation for ordinary Syrians has steadily worsened with over 2 million people now affected.

The Syrian regime should be smashed fast. After hearing the refugees and their account of the massacres of the regime, Mr Bashar al-Assad doesn't deserve to be on this earth. It is an operation of destruction of an entire people that he is trying to accomplish.

Updated at 3.18pm BST

1.58pm BST

Idlib under fire

Today, shelling by Mig-23 against the eastern part of Ma'arat al-Numan, in Jerjanaz town, started early in the morning and only stopped an hour ago. The warplanes were dropping explosives on the town for a third day and three people were martyred.There was shelling against "al-Zawyia" mountain and Shiliyia town, with 30 people wounded due to the dropping of explosives on houses. It has been the first time in Idlib that Mig warplanes have bombed the province.

In Taftanaz and Sermien towns, in 48 hours of shooting by warplanes, 10 children were killed and more than 50 other people were wounded. There is a military barrack, east of Ma'arat al-Numan in Wadi Dhaif, which is shelling all the surrounding villages by artillery and tanks. It is true that 70% of Idlib is liberated but the warplanes are giving us a really hard time. A lot of people are leaving Jerjanaz Town today to al-Zawiyia mountain to escape the shooting. There are a few rugged places that warplanes can't reach that are used by people as shelters now.

We have a huge number of FSA men here who are organised in many brigades like "Suqur Belad Al-Sham", "Martyrs of Zawiyia mountain" and many other brigades but they are equipped with light weapons only. These weapons can't stand in the face of tanks, artillery and warplanes. It is a pity that we have to lose so many martyrs to liberate a single checkpoint but if we have rockets we will be able to reduce the number of the martyrs in every attack.

The humanitarian situation here is very dire, thanks God it is a countryside where you can have some vegetables to feed yourself and your family, as the Syrian army is not allowing a piece of wheat to get into Idlib. You can forget about fuels as one litre of gas has soared to $3 and it is not available anyway.

1.32pm BST

Miliary recruiting

If you search for "syria" on Twitter today (at least in the UK) a recruiting ad for "hunter-killer" submariners comes up as the top tweet:

Russia says London embassy attacked

The Russian embassy in London today accused British police of taking no action to prevent an attack on its building by a group of activists protesting at Moscow's support for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Reuters reports:

It made the accusation as about 40 protesters clad in balaclavas demonstrated outside the embassy, located in an upscale part of London, against the verdict in a trial of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot in Moscow.

An embassy spokesman said a group of protesters chanting anti-Assad slogans attacked the building overnight, throwing stones and smashing windows.

"The police who arrived at the scene regretfully did not take any measures to stop the unsanctioned protest and detain the attackers," said the spokesman. No one was hurt.

"We view the incident as a new case of violation of the principle of inviolability of diplomatic missions in London."

It said the attack caused significant damage to the building and posted a picture of broken windows and large rocks scattered on the floor on its Facebook social media page.

Rise in refugees

The UN refugee agency says there has been another sharp rise in Syrian refugees fleeing to Turkey and that the numbers headed to Jordan, where an estimated 150,000 have already fled, also are climbing, AP reports.

UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards says 3,500 people crossed mainly from Aleppo, Syria, and the surrounding area into the Turkish provinces of Kilis and Hatay on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Edwards told reporters in Geneva on Friday that there are now almost 65,000 Syrians in nine refugee camps in Turkey, about 40% of them new arrivals this month.

He says some 1,080 people arrived at the Ramtha and Jaber border areas in Jordan on Thursday night on top of 1,600 on Tuesday and Wednesday. Jordan's government now estimates 150,000 Syrians have crossed the border since March 2011.

Syrian refugees flee after an air attack by the Syrian government in Azaz, in Kilis city, Turkey, 16 August 2012. Photograph: EPA

12.31pm BST

Challenges for Egypt

Ahram Online has published a guide to "the political, economic and social challenges facing Egypt's first post-Mubarak president, with an emphasis on the everyday problems facing average Egyptians".

There's a daunting list of issues, covering the economy, subsidies and the budget, food security, fuel and electricity shortages, overpopulation, slums and random housing, religious freedoms and minorities, judiciary and education, the interior ministry, freedom of speech, media and the arts, tourism, women's rights and street children, the public sector and privatisation, corruption, water, saving Cairo, healthcare and hepatitis, national reconciliation.

Syria's official Sana news agency said "armed terrorist groups" the regime's phrase for rebels had been pushed out from areas on both sides of the airport, which is located about 15km (9 miles) southeast of Aleppo's historical centre.

The report did not make it clear whether the fighting was closer to the international airport or the adjacent military airfield, a hub for air strike missions on rebel sites in the north.

Aleppo carries major symbolic and strategic value. It's the hub of northern Syria and close to rebel-held territory and critical supply corridors to the Turkish border.

Walthamstow jihadist

He disclosed that he had converted to Islam five years ago and had arrived in Syria earlier this year to join the revolutionary forces seeking to overthrow President Assad.

“I will stay here until I die,” he said. “I want to die in Syria. We must all taste paradise, and when that happens is decided already.”

However, not all of his comrades share the same enthusiasm:

“Watching “Abu Yacoub” and Hassan return laughing to the front, one Syrian fighter at the hospital snarled. “Why have they come here?” he said. “We don’t need them. They come for jihad but some of them are extremists and here in Syria we are not extremists.”

Stingers for the FSA?

The Free Syrian Army have acquired a shipment of 14 Stinger missiles, according to al-Arabiya. The missiles are believed to have been delivered through the İskenderun area on the border with Turkey. According to al-Arabiya’s source, both Turkey and the United States are aware of the arms delivery.

The acquisition of Stinger missiles would be a significant gain for the rebels. These surface-to-air missiles use an infrared seeker to lock on to the heat in a plane’s engine, with a range of up to 11,000ft. Although usually fired from standing, they can be adapted to fire from ground vehicles and would fit well into the rebels’ existing arsenal of truck-mounted weapons.

As The Guardian reported on Tuesday, the FSA already claim to have shot down a regime plane using a KPV 14.5mm heavy machine gun. The use of stingers would certainly increase the rebels’ capacity to challenge the regime’s military predominance in the air.

A Free Syrian Army fighter fires at a Syrian airforce helicopter in Aleppo on 16 August, 2012. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

Updated at 2.51pm BST

10.42am BST

A question of payment

A further twist in the story of the Air France plane which was diverted from Beirut to Damascus for "security reasons" (see yesterday's live blog).

The crew ... asked passengers how much cash they could stump up after Syrian authorities refused credit card payment to refuel the aircraft ...

“As a precaution and in anticipation, the crew asked how much money the passengers had in cash to pay to fill up with fuel,” the airline spokeswoman said.

She said the airline was eventually able to pay the bill without taking money from passengers, but she declined to say how it had paid or how much the fuel stop cost.

Presumably the Syrian authorities were worried that a credit card payment would not be processed by the banks because of sanctions.

The Daily Star adds:

The European Union has imposed a series on sanctions on Syria, including a ban on the Syrian national airline that will prevent the flag carrier landing at EU airports, although it will still be able to fly over EU countries and make emergency stops.

10.30am BST

Shelling update

The Local Coordination Committees activist group claims that as well as Tal Rifaat, in Aleppo province, and Idlib, other areas have been shelled today. Below are some of its updates. They cannot be independently verified by the Guardian

Damascus Suburbs, Deir Asafeir: Heavy machine and rocket shelling along with helicopters flying over the city and heavy explosions were heard all over the city.

Homs, al-Qusayr: Regime's forces are reportedly shelling neighborhoods of the city with artillery and tanks.

Homs, al-Rastan: Many wounded due to the artillery and rocket launchers shelling on the city.

10.24am BST

Red lines for Egypt’s media

Egypt's President Morsi has come under fire for stifling critical voices in the media. The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the new government of pushing back against critical coverage, suppressing critical journalists and state-run newspapers, putting a journalist on trial, and attacking three journalists on the street.

This is a troubling backward step that Egypt's newly-elected President Mohamed Morsi should not be taking. We urge President Morsi to reverse this course immediately and demonstrate his commitment to press freedom.

Last Saturday, copies of the privately-owned daily al-Dostour were confiscated from the paper's offices after a front-page editorial called Morsi a "fascist" and asked the army to "defend the civil state". A Cairo court has since issued a travel ban on the journalist in question who is set to be tried on Wednesday.

Local news outlets reported yesterday that another paper, the state-owned al-Akhbar, will cancel its daily “Free Opinions” column, following the censorship of three articles in a week:

Sarah El Sirgany (@Ssirgany)

Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression says THREE articles were banned by state-run daily Al-Akhbar in 1 week for criticizing MB

Climate change and political change

Could climate change be a factor behind the Syrian uprising? Yes, says Shahrzad Mohtadi in an article for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Key points:

• A drought unparalleled in recent Syrian history lasted from 2006 to 2010 and led to an unprecedented mass migration of 1.5m people from farms to urban centres.

• Because the Assad regime's economic policies had largely ignored water issues and sustainable agriculture, the drought destroyed many farming communities and placed great strain on urban populations.

• Although not the leading cause of the Syrian rebellion, the drought-induced migration from farm to city clearly contributed to the uprising and serves as a warning of the potential impact of climate change on political stability.

President's brother

Speculation continues about President Assad's feared younger brother, Maher, who has not been seen in public since an attack killed several members of Syria's security cabinet last month.

Various sources claim that Maher – who commands Syrian army's Republican Guard and 4th Division – was injured though other dispute that.

Yesterday, Reuters reported:

"We heard that he lost one of his legs during the explosion, but don't know any more," a Western diplomat told Reuters.

A Gulf source said: "He lost one of his legs. The news is true."

However, a Lebanese politician with close ties to Damascus said he doubted whether Maher had indeed been wounded in the attack. He said a colleague had spoken to Maher by telephone on the day after the bombing, July 19, and the Syrian commander gave no hint to him that he had just sustained a serious injury.

On Tuesday, a Saudi newspaper quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying that Maher had been severely injured and had lost both his legs.

The Russian foreign ministry swiftly denied the story and also denied that Bogdanov had given any such interview.

The Saudi newspaper responded by posting an audio recording of the alleged interview with Bogdanov. In a phone conversation with the Guardian, the journalist concerned, Omar al-Zubaidi, also described how the interview came about.

•Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin has invited UN ambassadors from key nations and international organizations who agreed on guidelines for a Syrian-led political transition in Geneva in June to a meeting at UN headquarters today to press for action. Churkin, whose country is the most important ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, told reporters he wants the Geneva action group along with Iran and Saudi Arabia, who are not members, to make "a joint or parallel appeal to all the parties of the Syrian conflict that they end violence as soon as possible by a certain point in time". Churkin said the appeal should also urge the government and opposition to appoint representatives to work on a political solution and transitional governing body.

I buried 12 of my family members today, including my father, my mother, and my sister – my brother's wife as well. Walid, my brother, was cut to pieces. We didn't recognise him at first. We buried my brother's children also. The youngest was 40 days old.